Today, there are a number of websites and services that offer the ability to obtain quotes for automobile or home insurance policies. These websites are oftentimes operated by or on behalf of the particular insurance companies themselves, or by a third-party company that forwards the information to the particular insurance agencies. The process is often cumbersome and time consuming for a number of reasons.
For instance, the buyer is often required to manually input all of the information pertaining to the insurance request in order to receive a quote from the insurance agency. This is time consuming and prone to errors. Also, receiving multiple quotes from multiple different insurance agencies requires the potential buyer to input all of the information on each and every website, individually. Again, this is time consuming and prone to errors. Furthermore, once the information has been manually and individually inputted into the different websites, it requires a significant amount of time to manage the various and disparate communications from different sellers via traditional mail, email and phone.
Accordingly, there is a need for a system and method that vastly reduces the time and energy required for a potential buyer to submit a request for proposal or a request for a quote by allowing the buyer to upload an image of an existing or previous insurance policy using a mobile phone, tablet or computer. This will eliminate the need for the buyer to manually input each and every element or term requested in the policy. Rather, the proposed system and method can process the image and extract information that can be provided to potential sellers or insurance agents/brokers.
In addition, the proposed system and method will improve the quality and quantity of bids provided by insurance agents because of the perceived higher quality of buyer. Sellers or agents will be more motivated to bid on a new insurance policy for a potential buyer who has uploaded an existing or previous policy than a customer who has filled in an online form manually. Particularly, the data obtained from the policy photograph or digital file of the proposed system and method may be perceived as real data from a real policy.
Furthermore, the proposed invention may significantly improve the quality of communication between the buyer and seller, allowing for real-time messaging between the buyer and multiple sellers on a single platform. This will allow the buyer to avoid the need to manage multiple emails and phone calls from multiple sellers or agents.